The goal of this project is the determination of the frequency in colorectal carcinoma of a group of biochemical and molecular markers that have been shown in tissue culture or pilot tissue studies to be associated with the development or progression of this disease. The further goal is the investigation of whether any marker or constellation of marker correlates with the biology or natural history of Duke's B2 and C cancers. The tissue samples to be studied are derived from patients with Duke's B2 or C colorectal carcinoma who are participating in CALGB protocols for the study of the efficacy of adjuvant therapy for colon carcinoma or rectal carcinoma. The markers to be studied include expression of the lck tyrosine protein kinase and colagenase type 4, which have ben shown to be overexpressed in cell lines derived from metastatic colorectal cancer; nm23, the expression of which decreases under the same conditions; and c- myc which is overexpressed in over 70% of colon carcinoma tissues. Each sample will also be screened for the expression of mutated p53 mRNA; p53 is a suppessor gene that has been shown to be mutated in a majority of colorectal carcinomas. The frequency of each of these markers in these samples will be measured, correlated with the frequency of the others, and with the frequency of ras mutations and loss of specific alleles in the same samples. Whether subgroups of tumors are defined by expression of particular ensembles of markers will be determined. Expression of individual markers will be correlated with stage, tumor location, morphologic differentiation, relapse rate, and survival as a function of therapy received. A prime aim of this study is to investigate whether a group of molecular markers can be used to predict which patients with Duke's B and C colorectal carcinoma will relapse and to define groups within which adjuvant therapy may or may not be indicated or useful.